NEWS OF THE WEEK.

THE 'news from America if not absolutely pacific is on the whole reassuring. 'The intelligence of British demands had reached the great cities and had not produced a popular explosion. On the contrary, the journals which on the 16th were threatening never to give up the Commissioners, were on the 20th deprecating bluster and urging calmness and gravity on the Cabinet and the people. The idea of surren- dering Mason and Slidell is less oppressive than was ex- pected, and semi-official writers anxiously deprecate the notion that+couple of traitors can be of any importanee. Nothing Mere is of course one exception to the moderation of the American papers. The, Herald, which for twenty years has exerted itself in every evil cause, now suggests that if England persists in her demand, the property of British sub- jects, amounting it says to 900,000,000 dollars in stocks, shares, and bonds, should at once be confiscated. It is most unfair, however, to consider the Herald the organ of the Federal Government, or of 'any respectable body of politi- cians. Even Mr. Seward, the only member of the Cabinet with whom it is even said to be connected, would recoil from such a suggestion as this, for in 1839 he wrote to Mr. W. Brown, the well-known merchant of Liverpool, declaring such confiscation " a gross violation of faith," of which "no one dreamed that Government could be guilty."

A- rw peace-speeches have been made during the week at Brighton, Mradford, Birmingham, and other towns, but the speakers all anew that they are ready for war if the American Government support Captain Wilkes. Their general tone reminds us a little of Heber Kimball, the Mormon Elder, who, when reminded by an American officer that as a religious man he ought to turn the other cheek to the smiter, replied, " I acknowledge the command, I will turn the other cheek, but if he hits it, I'll give him hell."

The Imperlal reception on New Year's Day passed off without the explosion always dreaded since the scene of 1859. The Emperor said little to the diplomatists beyond expressing a hope that the next year would be a better one for kings and people. But he told a deputation of priests " that ecclesiastics know well how to render unto Ccesar the ,n , though much is rumoured, of the intentions of the k-- ',',Get,but the Federal Executive is'evidentlyleft free to act, and Mr. Seward behaved,: iiis interviews with Lord Lyons, with temper and moderat , , The Queen's messenger with the despatches reached Li) * Lyons on the 18th December, and the Minister communicated their contents to Mr. Se- ward at once, but unofficially. The official reading would not take place till the 22nd, and the final answer must be re- turned by the 29th, and would, if the Americans delay to the last, not reach England before the 6th instant. things that be CEesar's, and unto God the things that be God's," a bit of theology which we suspect his Majesty interprets in a highly Erastian sense.

Among the Imperial troubles just now, is Marshal Pelis- sier. That General, it appears, recently visited the harbour of La Grao, Valencia, and demanded a saldte. General Orozeo, in command of the place, telegraphed for orders, and the Marshal, furious at the delay, landed to receive the Captain - General. General Orozeo unfortunately paid his respects in the' full dress of a civilian, and the Marshal, fairly beside himself, received him sitting, smoked his cigar in a most insulting posture, and treated the unlucky Spaniard " as I," he writes " would not treat a common soldier," and threatened Lieutenant Van Halen of the Royal Navy with his stick. General Orozeo retired, and reported the facts to the Spanish Government, which at once took up the quarrel. The Captain-General was removed for want of dignity in replying to such an insult, and an explanation demanded from Paris. The Emperor at once ordered the Marshal to apologize, and there the affair has ended, with a new shade added to the impression previously sufficiently strong, that of all masters a French marshal is decidedly the most unendurable.

London is discussing the form that an intended memorial to the Prince Consort should assume. Among many sugges! tions, one of the best is to erect a Museum at South Ken- sington in which the Prince always took the most lively interest. The present building is only temporary, and has not one architectural feature to recommend it. The objec- tion is, that the admirers of the Prince would then be doing the work of Parliament.

" John Archbishop of Tuam," has addressed a letter to Lord Palmerston on Irish distress. Most of it is a mere torrent of words abusive of " unsectarian education" and Sir, Robert Peel, but there is a prayer which runs through the whole of the windy diatribe, which is intelligible enough. He begs the Government to provide for Irish distress by jublic works instead of in-door relief, which is fatal• to the faith of the men and the virtue of Irish women. At the same time he objects to out-door relief, because it burdens the land, and tends to substitute "a Scotch Crcesus" for Irish gentry of 'ancient lineage. Dr. McHale does not seem to see that if his "Scotch Crcesus" can maintain the poor, and the ancient gentry cannot, Irishmen ought to pray for the Scotch Crcesus. We wish some honest inquiry were ordered into the facts of this scarcity. Nobody can believe these wild ecclesiastics, but officials are optimists by profession, and we fear that, although the danger is just now exagge- rated, the seed potatoes will all be eaten, and the spring will be a terrible one to the people. Irish exaggeration is no reason why Irish distress should not be relieved.

Baron Ricasoli has renounced the idea of seeking for a Home Secretary.

Alderman Humphery at Guildhall, has called the attention of the press to a passage in Zadkiel's Almanack for 1861, of the existence of which we were not aware when we wrote last week. Not having been able to examine it, except by deputy in the reading-room of the British Museum, we were under the impression that the sentence which we quoted from the Horoscope of the Prince of Wales, " 1861, is evil for the father of the native," was the only one bearing on the Prince Consort's health, but we now find from the zealous Alderman that another such passage occurs : " The full moon nearest to the ingress of the sun in Aries is 2h. 15m. P.M. 26th March, 1861. This lunation is remarkable, because the same sign ascends as at the ingress, and very nearly the same degree. Again we find Saturn retrograde in the ascendant and Jupiter in the twelfth, with Mars again fiercely burning e tenth house. Some very pugnacious feelings are layed by the ruling powers. The revenue fails, and moil arises on that question. A royal marriage is now indicated by Venus, lady of the tenth house, being in exact sextile aspect to Mars. Mercury, in the eighth, promotes much mortality during the spring amongst children and many deaths by catarrhs, coughs, and asthma. The sta- tionary position of Saturn in the third degree of Virgo in May, following upon this lunation, will be very evil for all persons born on or near the 26th of August ; among the sufferers I regret to see the worthy Prince Consort of these realms. Let such persons pay scrupulous attention to health. Some singular calamity for London is threatened about the 1st of August, when Saturn comes to square of Uranus in this figure. It may be by tumults or the death of numbers by fall of some building, &c. The evil will be sudden and singular." The seer himself expressly referred this calamity to Hay, not only in the above extract, but also in his comment on the month of May, where he says, " On the 24th May the sun squares Saturn and other evil testimonies concur to show that a national loss is now threatened, and that there will be weeping and wailing in high places." Again : " The 15th and 25th (May) are days of evil note for the ruling powers of Old England. Let all persons born about 25th and 26th August and 20th February beware of sickness and trouble." Unfortunately for him, the seer has himself in- terpreted this prophecy in the Almanack for 1862, pub- lished two months ago. Among " the fulfilled predictions for 1860 and 1861" we find :

loved [the Duchess of Sent] fulfilled the prediction."

Zadkiel Tao-Tse went in for the illness or death of the Prince Consort on either the 15th or 25th of May; it was the " position of Saturn in the third degree of Virgo in May" which was to be so evil to " persons born about the 26th of August ;" Zadkiel himself declared it fulfilled by the death of the Duchess of Kent in March; and now the wise City magistrate takes credit for its fulfilment by the death of the Prince in December. It is also generally asserted that the vaticination of some great accident to London on the 1st of August, may have been fulfilled by the great fire in June— as the seer himself thinks, holding that it was " hastened by the comet"—or by the great fire in September, or by the North London Railway accident in September, or by some other event. Dates are of no moment. We apprehend that in the next number of the Almanack we shall find the following :

PREDICTION.

" The blindest and most infatuated of our learned men, sceptics as they may be, in all that regards the opera- tions of the Heavens on mankind, will hardly fail to see the stupendous power of the martial star from July, 1862, to January, 1863."—Almanack for 1862.

FULFILMENT.

The event here predicted fell a few months earlier—being hastened by the passage of the sun through the winter solstice — when one much honoured called attention, on the bench at Guild- hall, to the accuracy of Zadkiel's Almanack.

The annual official return of the Navy was published on Wednesday last. The list shows a total of 856 vessels building, preparing, or in commission, of which 702 are steamers, and comprises : "811ine-of-battle ships, each mount- ing from 74 to 131 guns ; 22 vessels, each with an armament of from 60 to% guns ; 44 51-gun frigates, the whole,with the exception of about 10 of that number, being screw steamers ; 57 ships, each mounting from 22 to 50 guns, and the majority of which have a tonnage as large as ships of the line; 29 screw corvettes, or frigates, each mounting 22 guns ; 317 screw and paddle-wheel steamers, each carrying less than 22 guns ; and 185 screw gunboats, each provided with two Arm- strong guns."

The fleet in American waters comprises 14 line-of-battle steamers, ranging from 51 to 100 guns ; 7 from 20 to 50, and 14 smaller vessels, exclusive of all the vessels ordered to join the same command. This single fleet without reinforcements, is therefore stronger than the fleet which recently attacked Port Royal.

The barbarous Trades Union outrages at Sheffield have been followed by one at Huddersfield. Patrick Ward was convicted of violently assaulting Thomas M'Kenny with a poker, on his way to his work, during a strike. The pri- soner was sentenced to three years' penal servitude. These outrages bring infamy to the Unions with which the perpe- trators are connected, and we are not surprised to find Mr. Kingsley writing to a Sheffield clergyman in a tone of general disgust for these Trades Unions that is remarkable in the author of Alton Locke. " If they fancy," he says, " that they are too strong for the classes above them, that they can defy the laws of England and the instincts of humanity, then they will find themselves mistaken, even if they have to be taught their folly by a second Bristol riot or a second Peter- loo." The outrages, bad as they are—and no one can feel deeper indignation at them than ourselves—are not the cha- racteristics of Trades Unions in general, but of one ortwo Unions out of hundreds, and to talk of suppressing then by law is to suggest the re-establishment of secret societies.

A movement is on foot to raise some testimonial of respect to Mr. Turnbull, the late Calendarer of Foreign State Papers in the Public Record Office, whose resignation was brought about by the machinations of the narrowest party in the Church, on the ground of his Roman Catholicism. How- ever widely Englishmen may differ as to the judiciousness of the original appointment, few will deny that the circum- stances which ended in his resignation, reflect much more credit on the honour of the learned Roman Catholic than on that of any other of the principal parties to the transaction. Mr. Turnbull has since been put -to a considerable expense by the action for libel, by which he thought it necessary to defend his character. The verdict, it will be remembered, was against, but the charge of Mr. Justice Erle decidedly in favour of, the plaintiff, and each party had to pay his own costs. It is certain that he has been the victim of a violent religious persecution, such as we should never have expected to see crowned with success through the acquiescence of the present Premier. Subscriptions to the testimonial will be received at the Unity Bank, 10, Cannon-street, City ; or the Branch Office, 1, 'Coventry-street, Haymarket.

"amt—The Emperor held the usual reception upon New Yeaes Day, but said nothing of any unusual significance. To the-diplo- matists he said : " The past year has been sadly marked by numerous agitations in various quarters of the world, and by cruel losses among royal families. I hope that the year 1862 may be a happier one both for kings and peoples." To the Corps Legislatif he said: "I hope that the Corps Legislatif will see in the modifications introduced into the Constitution a fresh proof of my entire confidence in the wisdom and patriotism of the deputies." And to a deputation from the clergy : "The French clergy, so eminent by their piety and vir- tues, and who know that it is necessary `to render unto Camas the things which be Caesar's, and unto God the things which be God's,' may count upon my protection, and my warm sympathy." The last sentence is intended as a hit at the priests, whom the Emperor, a true Bonaparte, can never address without a sneer. A pamphlet has appeared called the American Union and Europe, and signed by M. Renouf. He argues that the war between North and South is not a war for abolition, and consequently that great sentiment ought not to affect political action, or the sympathies of mankind. They should remember only that the Union has repeatedly extended itself, that its statesmen claim the whole continent, and that a Federal republic can absorb all races. He, therefore, suggests that as the war is not one of abolition, as the political Union iwolved great political danger, as the contest embarrasses France, and as Eng- land must commence a campaign, England and France united should guarantee to the South her independence on condition of emancipa- tion. This view, which reconciles the interests and sentiments of France, seems to have struck the Parisians, but it is a dream. The South, if it must emancipate, may as well join the Union which it has been accustomed to rule.

The Legislative Corps will meet on the 17th or 18th January. We have noticed in another place an escapade of Marshal Pelissier, which has created some comment.

Sfal4.—The only intelligence from Italy is of ministerial difficulties. Baron Ricasoli holds two portfolios, those of Foreign Affairs and the Interior. He has naturally neglected the latter, and Italians com- plain that the internal administration is weak. Accordinglu the Premier has been seeking about for a colleague. The best clminis- trators are the old Piedmontese officials, but they are vticrallY much opposed to a broad and Italian policy and want to retrench at once. San di Martino, who was asked to accept, made this a sine quei non. Minghetti, who understands the depprtment, is devoted to the "regional systeml" i.e. the division of Italy into great municipal states, which is unpopular, and Ratazzi will neither accept terms nor reject them. At last, therefore, Ricasoli has, as reported by telegraph, announced that, he will discontinue his search, and meet Parliament with his former Cabinet. lie will, it is feared, be defeated, Ratazzi being assisted by the party of action. He is still, however, supported by the majority, who are determined to resist French influence. It would seem probable that the charge of neglecting domestic administration is true, but the Piedmontese display a very narrow apirit;in not supplying Rieasoli with a Home Secretary. Vesuvius is still in a stab: ut eruption, and the official journal esti- mates the sufferers at 24,1400. ia.—The new census gives Berlin a population of 565,000, an increase of 45,000 in ten years.

Stutria.—Notbing has occurred during the week of any political importance. A Committee of the Reichsrath are considering the bills for new loans, but their consideration will not help to raise the money, and it is said the Court is already talking of a modification of the constitution. This is to increase the powers of the local diets, a measure for which the nobles are extremely anxious, as it would in- crease their provincial importance. Nothing, however, will be done until the deficit has been in some way provided for. Great appre- hension is expressed of an American war, which it is believed would set France and Italy free to act.

Slinill,—The Government has officially acknowledged the dis- content among the peasantry by an article in the St. Petersburg Ga- zette, containing the following circular to the Governors of Provinces : "It results' from information received at the Ministry of the Interior, on the subject of the actual state of the question of the serfs, that the favourable progress of that question, and especially the comple- tion of the charter of regulations, find an obstacle in the erroneous Interpretations which circulate among the serfs, as also in the false hopes which they entertain. They expect that what they call a new freedom,' the promulgation of which, at the expiration of two years, would confer upon them new privileges not mentioned in the regula- tions of the 19th February. They add that those serfs who should have'contracted arrangements with the proprietors and signed charters would be excluded from the enjoyment of these privileges. To put an end to this illusion his Majesty the Emperor, during his visits to the Crimea, deigned repeatedly to explain to the chief men of the rural districts, when they had the honour of being presented to his Majesty, the exact state of the question, at the same time reminding them of the obligations they were bound to fulfil. Thus, his Majesty said to the serfs, That there would not be any other freedom be- yond that which had been conceded to them, and that consequently the serfs ought conscientiously to execute what was exacted from them by the general laws, as well as by the regulations of the 19th of Tebruary.' " That sounds very decided; but if the serfs still keep the lands, what is the Emperor to do ? Conquer Russia ? There is a rumour, also, that the serfs, besides free lands, demand an exemp- tion from the conscription, but it requires confirmation. If it is ,dirrect, the existing system of Russian society is at an end.

Vutugal.—Lisbon has been the scene of disturbances. The new Xing, Don Louis, took the oaths on the 22nd instant, and was most cordially welcomed, but he was immediately after taken ill. His brother, Don John, was already sick, and died on the 28th. These successive deaths, which reduce the royal family to the King, Don Augusto, and two sisters, wives of the Prince of Saxony and Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern, excited the suspicions of the popu- lace, who demanded that the ex-king should be exhumed. They thought he had been poisoned by the ultramontanes about his Court. 'Great crowds assembled in the streets, two nobles were attacked, and the King was earnestly advised to quit the palace. The King -obeyed, and the dead body was exhumed, but there were no signs of poison. The populace then, by an odd instinct of rage, attacked the 'druggists, and destroyed everything they thought poisonous. It was necessary at last to call out the military to restore order. It is pro- bable that the cause of the fever is the state of the palace, but it is C'ertain that careful precautions are taken against Alison, it may be to appease the mob. The Cortes intend, it is said, to annul the act of renunciation signed by the Kin's sisters on their marriage, and so increase the number of legal heirs to the throne.

3)fpxjni.—An account of the complications produced by the Spanish invasion will be found in another column. A. new agreement for the payment of certain debts has been signed by the Mexican Govern- ment but negatived by the Cortes, it is said with the hope of com- pelling England to interfere. The whole country seems to be given up to brigands, except Gusnaxuato, where Michael Doblado has exe- cuted 1272 bandits since the beginning of the year, and where there is, consequently, profound order. No evidence has yet been trans:. nutted of Marshal Serrano's assertion, that a plot exists for massacre of all Spaniards.

quirrira.—The only news of importance relating to the war is the followlv.g proclamation issued by Major-General Phelps commanding at Ship lshaid, in Mississippi Sound, and which will be disavowed at Washington :

' Head-quarters, Middlesex Brigade, Ship Island, Mississippi, Dec. 4.

" To THE LOYAL CITIZENS OF THE SOUTH-WEST.

" Without any desire of my own, but contrary to my private inclination, I again find myself among you as a military officer of the Government. A proper respect for my fellow-countrymen, renders it not out of place that I should make known to you the motives and principles by which my command will be governed. We believe that every State that has been admitted as a Slave State into the Union since the adoption of the constitution has been so admitted in direct violation of that constitution. We believe that the Slave States which existed as such at the adoption of our constitution are by becoming parties to that compact, under the highest obligations of honour and morality to abolish slavery. It is our conviction that monopolies are as destructive as competition is conservative of the principles and vitalities of republican government ; that slave labour is a monopoly which exclude& free labour and competition ; that slaves are kept in comparative idleness and ease in a fortile half of our arable national territory, while free white labourers, constantly augmenting in numbers from Europe, are confined to the other half, and are often distressed by want; that the free labour of the North has more need of expansion into the Southern States, from which it is virtually excluded, than slavery had into Texas in 1846; that free labour is essential to free institutions; that these institutions are naturally better adapted and more congenial to the Anglo-Saxon race thou are the despotic tendencies of slavery ; and, finally, that the dominant political principle of this North American continent, so long as the Caucasian race continues to flow in upon us from Europe, must needs be that of free institutions and free government. Any ob- structions to the progress of that form of government in the United States must inevitably be attended with discord and war. Slavery, from the condition of a universally-recognized social and moral evil, has become at length a political institution, demanding political recognition. It demands rights to the exclusion and annihilation of those rights which are insured to us by the constitution; and we must choose between them which we will have, for we cannot have both. The constitution was made for freemen, not for slaves. Slavery as a social evil might for a time be tolerated and endured, but as a political institution it becomes imperious and exacting, controlling, like a dread necessary all whom circumstances have compelled to live under its sway, hamper- ing their actions, and thus impeding our national progress. As a political institution it could exist as a co-ordinate part only of two forms of government—viz., the despotic and the free; and it could exist under a free government only where public sentiment, in the most unrestricted exercise of a robust freedom, leading to extravagance and licentiousness, had swayed the thoughts and habits of the people beyond the bounds and limits of their own moderate constitutional provisions. It could exist under a free Government only where the people, in a period of unreasoning extravagance, had permitted popular clamour to overcome public reason, and had attempted the impossibility of setting up permanently, as a political institution, a social evil which is opposed to moral law. By reverting to the history of the past, we find that one of the most destructive wars on record, that of the French Revolution, was originated by the attempt to give political character to an institution which was not suscep- tible of political character. The Church, by being endowed with political power with its convents, its schools, its immense landed wealth, its associations secret and open, became the ruling power of the State, and thus occasioned a war of more strife and bloodshed probably than any other war which has desolated the earth. Slavery is still less susceptible of political character than was the Church. It is as fit at this moment for the lumber-room of the past as was in 1793 the monastery, the landed wealth, the exclusive privilege, &c., of the Catholic Church in France. It behoves us to consider, as a self-governing people, bred and reared and practised in the habits of self-government, whether we cannot, whether we ought not, to revolutionize slavery out of existence, without the necessity of a conflict of arms like that of the French Revolution. Indeed, we feel assured that the moment slavery is abolished, from that moment oar Southern brethren—every ten of whom have probably seven relatives in the North—would begin to emerge from a hateful delirium. From that moment, relieved from imaginary terrors, their days be- come happy, and their nights peaceful and free from alarm ; the aggregate amount of labour under the new 'stimulus of fair competition becomes greater day by day; property rises in value, invigorating influences succeed to stagnation, degeneracy, and decay, and union, harmony, and peace—to which we have so long been strangers—become restored, and bind us again in the bonds of friend- ship and amity, as when we first began our national career under our glorious Government of 1789. Why do the leaders of the rebellion seek to change the form of your ancient Government? Is it because the growth of the African element of your population has come at length to render a change neces- sary? Will you permit the free Government under which you have thus tar lived, and which is so well suited for the development of true manhood, to be altered to a narrow and belittling despotism, in order to adapt it to the necessities of ig- norant slaves, and the requirements of their proud and aristocratic owners? Will the labouring men of the South bind their necks to the same yoke that is suited to the slave? We think not. We may safely answer that tho time has not arrived when our Southern brethren, for the mere sake of keeping the Africans in slavery, will abandon the long-cherished free institutions and enslave them- selves. It is the conviction of my command, as a part of the national forces of the United States, that labour—manual labour—is inherently noble ; that it cannot be systematically degraded by any nation without mining its peace, hap- piness, and power ; that free labour is the granite basis on which free institutions must rest ; that it is the right, the capital, the inheritance, the hope of the poor man everywhere; that it is especially the right of 5,000,000 of our fellow- countrymen in the Slave States, as well as of the 4,000,000 of Africans there, and all our efforts, therefore, however small or great, whether directed against the interference of Governments abroad or against rebellious combinations at home, shall be for free labour. Our motto and our standard shall be, here and everywhere, and on all occasions—' Free labour and working men's rights.' It is on this basis, and this basis alone, that our munificent government, the asylum of the nations, can be perpetuated and preserved.

"J. W. PHELPS, Brigadier-General of Volunteers, Commanding."